Interesting way to get out the vote

I ran across this story from the 2004 Italian elections. SMS seems to be taking off with young people in the US, so this might be an interesting way to increase youth turnout. I’m reminded of the Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” from the weekend after our 2004 election where they bring in the “fraternity brother” to talk about the youth vote and he talks about how in two weeks they’re all going to vote. Then there’s the old standby where we tell our Democrat friends that the election rules have been changed, Republicans vote on Tuesday and Democrats vote on Wednesday. Question is, do we want people to vote who don’t know it’s election day without being reminded? I guess that depends how they vote!